


Merge Conflicts

by ivnwrites



Category: Hannibal (TV), The Matrix (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Matrix Fusion, Arguing, Attempted Murder, Fluff, Hacking and Illegal Activities, Light Technobabble, M/M, Sassy Will Graham, between matthew and will, but that's par for the course with these characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 15:13:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13437492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivnwrites/pseuds/ivnwrites
Summary: Recruiting someone out of the matrix was supposed to be easy. He was supposed to be able to explain the simulation and watch their eyes light up at the chance to finally see what was outside the world they had known. They weren't supposed to turn his offer down.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic isn't going to make a whole lot of sense if you haven't seen the matrix or at least read the wikipedia page. I have most of it plotted out, so there will be a couple mor chapters.
> 
> This was inspired by providethemeat's [post](http://providethemeat.tumblr.com/post/156547200419/hannigram-matrix-au-for-hannibalodyssey-will) on tumblr, but it is my own spin on their idea. The Lights, Camera, Murder Fest was what pushed me to actually get writing on it.

The sculpture garden at the northern end of the park tended to go quiet after 11pm, any of the last individuals and couples wandering through the various installations departing as their beds beckoned. By 2:27am, the more affluent part of the city was silent apart from the sporadic cars that always seemed to flit in and out of the darkness on their own clandestine errands. As Hannibal stood under the branches of a nearby tree he could only hear the quiet groans of metal being battered by the wind aside from his own breaths. He looked idly down at the light dappling across his hands from the street lamps, letting his fingers flutter in and out of the patches while he waited, one eye on the hands of his watch as they ticked past the half hour.

“Hannibal Lecter?” He studiously ignored the use of his real name. It was easiest to pretend he had no recognition of the people from his normal life if they glimpsed him in his less than legal dealings. Anyone with sense would see his closed off demeanour and leave, but this person simply came closer, joining him under the rustling foliage. “I’m sorry, ‘MindReader’ seems a bit pretentious, even knowing what you can do.”

He looked up to see a man standing in front of him in a long black coat, the collar turned up against the chill wind. “And what exactly can I do?” He asked with a raised eyebrow, not moving from where he leant against the tree. The nature of the meeting had aroused his suspicions with the limited information he’d been provided, evoking memories of a similar one from years before.

Will began to recite, rattling off the facts he had memorized before walking into the park. “Last month you made over $7,500 selling intrusion software geared toward federal law enforcement computers. It was written on an air gapped laptop that you bought two months ago after you had to scrap the last one.” By this point, people usually began to freak out over how much the person speaking to them knew, but at Hannibal’s amused expression he continued with a slight smile on his face. “You have a flash drive in your pocket with a sample of your work, though there are critical parts of the programs removed. You’re going to hand it over to a potential client who you were supposed to meet here,” He glanced down at his watch, grimacing slightly. “Six minutes ago. I apologize, it took me longer than I thought to make sure I wasn’t being tailed.”

Hannibal raised an eyebrow, opening his hands in a gesture of acceptance. “I take it you’re ‘Cassandra?’”

Will’s smile twisted at the corners, turning almost sarcastic as his arms folded across his chest, not feeling the need to explain his choice of pseudonym. “Yes, though as I told you, I prefer to go by my real name in person.”

“I wasn’t able to find much information on you other than what you sent me. Everything else was either out of date or speculative.” Hannibal’s usual reconnaissance methods had failed. Members of his network knew Will’s alias, only one of them had interacted with him years prior, after that, the man seemed to have disappeared. It was the reason why he’d brought a gun to the meeting hidden beneath his coat. “I must admit, I’m not sure whether I should be flattered or disturbed by how much you know about me.”

“The people I work with have been keeping an eye on you for a while.” Will took a step forward so he was completely in the tree's shadow. He must have gone through his entire spiel a thousand times during the day and the walk from his entry point, but at that moment it sounded completely insane. “I had a chance to look at the software you’ve written that allow the user to delete evidence without being tracked. The data isn’t just wiped, it’s like the entries were never made in the first place.” This all had been so much easier to explain when he’d had the recordings from the monitoring station in front of him, able to point to the exact instances as proof. Without them, his arguments sounded hollow, bordering on downright insane.

“Anyone with enough skill or money can erase their footsteps, I just provide the interface.”

“But by all standards, the code behind it should be worthless. I counted at least five functions that appear to do nothing, they don’t interact with the rest of the program or the target machine, but if they’re removed the entire thing fails. Your programs shouldn’t work given modern system restraints, that is unless you can somehow manipulate the world around it.”

A wry smile had spread over Hannibal’s face as Will spoke, the pieces of the puzzle finally assembling into a recognizable pattern. “I take it you’re one of the ‘humans living outside the matrix.’” He couldn’t help the satisfaction he felt at Will’s surprised expression. “One of your ‘teams’ approached me two years ago.”

“Where-” Will knit his brow in confusion. He should have seen it somewhere in the records if Lecter had already been contacted for recruitment. But then again, the central databases were only updated when ships returned to Zion. There was no remote contact between the crews and the city as a safety measure, meaning that data never reached the archives if a hovercraft never returned to dock. “Which ship did they come from?”

“The Trigati.”

The name sent a cold shiver of familiarity along Will’s spine. He’d been approached by the ship’s captain for his own recruitment, and he’d spent his first few months in the real world as a crewmember before transferring to the Nebuchadnezzar. Finding out their eventual fate had been...disquieting, to say the least.

“The Trigati went down in an attack,” Will remarked, blinking slowly. “we found the wreckage 18 months ago.” He could remember nearly gagging as he looked through the cockpit windows at the pile of tangled steel and glass. Bodies had been strewn from their places on the ship into random points where they had been impaled. The frigid temperatures of the sewers system had preserved faces awash with pain and shock that still showed up in Will’s nightmares. “Nothing was salvageable.”

Hannibal’s face pulled into a carefully neutral expression as he regarded Will, features schooled into a practiced still expression that he had used many times before. “Then I’ll save you the trouble of explaining everything to me; the answer is no. I have no interest in joining you.”

“Why not?” It wasn’t Will’s first time working recruitment, but the previous people he’d spoken to had jumped at the chance to see what was outside the world they’d been stuck in. The same curiosity that drove them to discover the system’s cracks in the first place made it almost impossible for them to resist understanding what was behind it. Someone turning down the opportunity to leave was unheard of.

Hannibal cocked his head, considering his answer before he spoke carefully. “If I’m content in my dreams, why would I ever want to wake up?”

“Because deluding yourself forever isn’t a solution.”

“According to what I’ve been told, 99% of the human population spends their lives here without issue.”

“That doesn’t make it right!” Will shot back, frustrated.

“I see no value to the ‘world outside the matrix’ than the simple fact that you call it ‘real.’“ He took a step away toward the edge of the shadows provided by the tree branches, turning to leave the meeting. “My answer won’t change. Goodbye Mr. Graham”

Will watched his retreating back with a sigh, rolling his eyes as he reached up to tap on the bluetooth earpiece he wore. “We’re going to have to change tactics. Pull me out, I’m done here.”

00000000

Will paused at the small alcove outside his room, stripping off his sweater with a groan at the much needed stretch. His back let out a series of pops and cracks when his arms came above his head, muscles protesting as they were pulled out of the positions they had fixed into while he was in the chair. He folded the fabric over his arm before laying the it on the shelf built into the wall. Spidery writing on the inside collar caught his eye and he checked the other one laying next to his, chuckling at what he saw as he pulled his boots off.

The door slid open with a quiet hiss of metal sliding against metal, and Will leant against the doorway to watch as the dim light from the hall spilled over the room’s occupant. Matthew was curled onto his side in the center of the floor, one hand tucked under his cheek on the pillow while the other arm draped across the empty mattress. The two of them had moved in together nearly a year ago, claiming one of the shared rooms on the Neb. After their initial attempts to squeeze onto one of the bunks had failed, they’d dragged the mattresses off the separate ledges, setting them side by side on the floor. Without Will there to take up half the bed, Matthew had rolled into the dip between the two cots, a blanket draped haphazardly over his legs.

He stirred as Will laid behind him and kicked the door closed, wrapping an arm tightly around the younger man’s waist as he fitted their forms together. “Welcome back.” Matthew’s voice was inarticulate with sleep, and he stretched against Will with a groan before clasping his hand around the older man’s. “Mmm. How did your mission go?”

Will smiled and let his eyes fall closed, matching his breathing to Matthew’s as they laid together. “Nothing urgent, just recruitment.” The ship clanked and hissed around them, the seemingly random sounds eventually falling into a soothing rhythm that Will found he had trouble falling asleep without.

“Then how goes it with the new recruit?” The question came after a long pause as Matthew drifted between asleep and awake, still wanting to pay attention to the conversation but having trouble knowing how long each of his blinks lasted.

Will let out a soft sound of exasperation. “I think it would have been more productive to just stay here.” He answered, brushing his nose over the nape of Matthew’s neck. The younger man had been born in Zion so his skin was free of the plugs scattered over Will’s body, and their absence had struck him as slightly odd during the first few months of their relationship. It was funny to realize how far his paradigm had shifted, while he’d once been shocked to see the metal components embedded in his limbs, he was now surprised when someone in the real world lacked them. “But they could be useful enough that Jack isn’t letting me give up yet.” Matthew hummed faintly in reply, and Will smiled, knowing he was quickly losing him to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to comment if you like it or you have questions, inarticulate screaming also counts. All of those things can also be done over on [my tumblr](ivnwrites.tumblr.com).
> 
> Also: There are 2 easter eggs in this chapter, one references a sci-fi/espionage book series, the other references a sci-fi TV show. I will work out some sort of reward for the first person to identify each of them.  
> Also for the first person to identify what the title refers to in computer programming.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A glimpse of what constitutes "normal" life on a hovercraft.

Matthew was pulled awake by a soft chime from the tablet he’d laid at the edge of the bed the night before. A large part of him wanted to remain asleep, pretend that the sound was simply part of his dreams, but hearing it enough times in the mornings meant that there was no mistaking it. He shifted forward to retrieve the tablet by feel, blinking at the screen in the low light of the room to shut off the alarm. His vision had almost cleared enough to see the schedule pulled up by the alarm when a hand came over his to press the tablet firmly back to the bed before Matthew could react.

“It is not morning yet.” Will grumbled from behind him, pulling the younger man closer so he was unable to get up.

“It is.” Matthew turned to roll over atop Will with a grin. “We didn’t all have ‘super important midnight missions that let us sleep in the next day’ last night.“ He took a breath and leant down for a kiss, twining his hands through the older man’s hair. The motion made it almost impossible for him to imagine leaving the cocoon of warmth that had accumulated around the two of them through the night to walk along the comparatively cold hallways of the ship. He pulled back after a long moment and saw Will smile as he gazed up at Matthew in a sleepy haze.

“I accidentally stole your sweater yesterday.” Will admitted, recalling what he’d seen on the inside of the collar the night before when he put it away. He’d honestly been surprised that he’d managed to make the mix up even after seeing the worn fabric day after day for multiple years.

“I noticed,” Matthew answered, shaking his head with his eyes pulled cartoonishly wide. “and I was so incredibly upset that you are going to have to work very hard to make it up to me.” He kissed Will firmly enough to press him down into the pillow before pulling back and completely off the older man, holding his hands up and away. “Ok, I need to leave now or I am never going to get out of this room.”

Will grumbled something that sounded like ‘you’re a horrible person’ as Matthew stood, before curling over on the mattresses. He pulled the blanket up to his neck, shielding his eyes when the door slid open to let Matthew out.

00000000

There was something oddly relaxing about running simulations and reviews, watching them unfold around him as he slipped through the environments. Being born without the hardware installed in redpills meant that Matthew instead used a bulky VR helmet to actually see the Matrix in a form other than pure data. It completely covered the top half of his face, blocking out all other light and sound in a way that could be claustrophobic if it wasn’t so ... calming. Leaning back in his chair with the helmet on, left hand resting on a keyboard as his right hovered over a touchpad was the best form of meditation he had ever found.

A small red dot appeared and began to blink in the corner of the screen, signaling that there was someone nearby who wanted to speak with him. The adjustment had been put in place after multiple incidents where he and other controllers had nearly jumped out of their chairs in shock when someone tapped them on the shoulder to get their attention.

He paused the simulation and pulled the helmet off with a sigh, setting it in his lap. It was easier to keep his eyes closed, letting his ears adjust back to normal sound levels before he tried to do the same with his vision. “What’s up?”

“I was sent to see how you were doing.” Will answered, leaning against a bulkhead. “Also to ask about the shell for tomorrow.”

He held out a beckoning hand, still not opening his eyes as he listened to Will’s footsteps across the metal deck. “It should work.” Once Will came close enough, Matthew avoided his hand easily and wrapped an arm around Will’s waist, yanking him closer to the chair so Matthew could lean his head against Will’s stomach, enjoying the warmth against his cheek. “I ran it a couple of times with the big dogs coming after you, and it worked fine.” He blinked owlishly up at Will and went silent, forcing his eyes to stay open as he waited out the vertigo that usually followed long sessions with the helmet. “You should be ok unless you throw yourself at an agent.”

Will grimaced. “ I hate these sorts of missions. Wearing a different avatar just feels...” His hand settled atop Mathew’s head as he searched for the right word, the shirt hairs brushing against his palm. “awful. It’s like my skin is too tight, but at the same time I can’t feel anything clearly.” He wasn’t alone in the sentiment, having discussed his experience with crew-members from other ships who were also tasked with undercover missions, though the ones who spent extended period of time in one shell found themselves able to get used to it.

“Yeah, but you are the best we have here at going undercover.” Matthew shifted in the chair so he could lean closer to Will, one hand resting on the dome of the helmet so it wouldn’t fall off his lap. “Besides, we did find you making money selling forged documents and identification, so if the shoe fits...”

“Shoes can fit without being comfortable.” Will scuffed his foot against the floor for emphasis. The boots given to hovercraft crews were built for durability and protection more than comfort, and receiving a new pair was more torture than a blessing and they could take weeks or months to break in.

Matthew grinned, swinging his legs off the chair and handing the helmet to Will. “Fair enough. But I found something that might help with your recruiting issue.” He nudged Will into the chair and pulled up a file as the older man regarded him dubiously. Matthew shook his head at Will’s reluctance, setting the helmet on his head before coaxing him to lie back. “Just watch.”

It took a few minutes for the events to play out, and Matthew watched from a nearby perch as what he could see of Will’s face shifted. When he pulled the helmet off, the older man wore the same expression of amused shock that he had. Will glanced back and forth between the helmet and Matthew’s face, giving the information time to register. “And this is real?”

“Last wednesday. There have to be some before that. We don’t have the records to confirm it, but in this case I think one is enough.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mission that Will is planning for has no real plot significance, it was just part of his standard work.
> 
> The next chapter will feature the second meeting between him and Hannibal, and it is guaranteed to be worse than the first. Thank you for reading, comments and kudos are always awesome.


End file.
